The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-03-03
A HAREEooTEo KING.
The Shabby Monarch Who Rules Over |
Queer Mesquite Kingdom.

Queer Mosquito Kingdom.
He lay in Q hammock when saw him
first, with his feet hanging over the side,
fast asleep. Not . bad-looking man, but
rather soiled. He wore q white cotton
shirt and o pair Of partaloons to match,
instead Of the royal ermine, and was told
they were the only garments his Majesty
owned, writes Beverly Crump in the Louis
Vile Courier-JoSrnal. The man saw in the
Handy, King Of the Mosquitoes.
The Mosquito Kingdom Is narrow strip
Of land two hundred miles long, on the
eastern side Of Nicaragua, and fronting on
the Caribbean Sea. On our maps tis called
the Mosquito Reservation. The ancestors
Of George William Albert Handy all have
been crowned under the auspices of the
British Government, and have always been
recognized by it as real Kings. The pres
ent King does not dress or act any
better than most Of the natives. He was
educated at Jamaica, where he was baptized
and received as member OF the Church Of
England, but has since fallen very far from
grace. He is about forty years of age, small
Of stature and has an intelligentlooking
face. If he would let rum alone, those who
know him say that he would amount to
something, but he spends all the money he
can get for drinks, and when H. IL gone
begs more from the merchants and traders
of the place, who are glad to give him
small sums and in return get royal favors.
The Government Is managed in the name
of the King by an American, formerly
from New Orleans, whose name Is Cuth-
bert.
The King lives with his mother, his
grandmother and his own family in q
shanty that was taken to Blewfelds from
the United States by some robber- hunters
and abandoned years ago. The royal
palace is upholstered and is without any of
the "modern improvements" that house.
owners in this country advertise It only
differs from those Of the rest Of the people
by being built of rough pine boards instead
Of bamboo poles, is covered with a roof Of
the same instead of palm leaves and bull
rushes, and 1t has board floor raised two
or three feet from the ground instead Of
mother earth. But the matched huts of
the natives are much better for the
climate, as they are cooler, and shed the
rain in the wet season, which the royal
roof will not.
His Majesty and the rest Of the family
either sleep in hammocks or on the floor,
end they always 90 to bed with their
clothes on. Such thing as night gown
was never heard Of, and If the Queen or
4
one she would doubtless keep it for a party
dress, as it would be SO much better in
texture and pattern than the garment she
wears during the day. Her costume is in
| variably speckled calico gown, such as
; one would pay five cents a yard for in the
| United States, and she never has but one
at time This dress she wears night and
| day until it Is worn out, and often longer;
| and there is nothing else between it and
| her skin.
More than one garment is considered su-
! perfluous, and that is often abbreviated.
/ The ladies Of the royal family as we'll as
! the men do not have any shoes or stock
! ings and would not wear them IL they had.
| The King wears white cotton shirt and q
pair Of pantaloons of the same material,
and is considered quite we'll dressed.
| The pigs, the chickens and the babies all
stand on an equality in the palace, and it is
! aquestion which fares best The heir tc
the throne Of Mosquito has to struggle for
| his bread for he does not sit at a mahog
| any table and eat it with golden spoon of
silver plate, but has it flung to him as he
crawls on the floor, and If he doesn't grab
it quickly the pigs or the chickens will
get it frst. The King does not ride in {
chariot, nor is he waited upon by lordly
looking servants in livery. He walks
when he goes anywhere, and hasn't seer
any vehicle but an ox-cart since he came
from Jamaica nearly twenty years ago.
His wife and mother do their own cook
ing, and use an iron kettle hanging over {
fire outdoors for every dish, such as farm
ers' wives in the United States make soap
His Majesty seldom gets beefsteal, ant
doubt if he knows what a lamb-chop is
buthe is fond of monkey meat, and eats i
as often and likes it just as we'll as we d,
chicken. And he has an abundance o
what we in the United States consider ont
Of the greatest luxuries, green turtle.
Besides monkeys and turtles, the King
has plenty of oysters to eat, with bread
fruit bananas and great many other de
licious fruits that we know nothing about
as they are so delicate that they can not b.
brought away from the country. HI
smokes cigarettes constantly, while hi
wife, the Queen, and his mother, the dow
ager, smoke cigars when they can &c
them. The ladies' Of the family can no
read, and there Is small chance Of the littl
Princesses and Princes learning unles
they 60 to the Morsvisn school.
The Mosquitoes have some queer Gus
toms. They do not have any weddings a
we do, but the little boys and girls are be-
trothed by their parents when they arr
ten or eleven years old. The boy, as sool
as his wife is selected, goes to her father
house to live, and remains there unit
they are married; unless it happens tina
they do not like each other, in which cas'
he goes to his old home and his father look
for some other girl
Their funerals are quite as curious. Whel
any one dies the place Of burial is at once
selected and q cotton thread Of cord i
stretched from the grave to the house, n,
matter how far 1t may be or what obstacles
are in the road. After the burial ever,
thing that belonged to tho dead person il
burned, and IL he owned any animals the!
are killed over his grave, as the people be
lieve the dead need all they had in thi
world in the other.
They never speak Of the dead and do no
think of them II it is possible to forget
The belief is that to speak Of dead maj
will awaken his spirit.
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